The Rude Pundit suggests two pro-healthcare reform ads:

Where Are the Pro-Health Care Reform Ads When We Need Them?:
F***, the Rude Pundit will just do the work for you, DNC and other groups:

Ad #1: We’re in a grocery store. POV of being behind a shopping cart, rolling down an aisle. Camera turns to a loaf of bread. Close-up on a sign: the price “$2.99″ has been crossed out with a black marker. A new price, “$4.15,” is written in. As the cart moves up aisles filled with similar signs, all with prices that have been raised, a voice says, “This past month, Anthem Blue Cross sent out notices to 800,000 individual health insurance policy holders informing them that their premiums were going to rise as much as 39%.”

Just a little FYI: Here are the external links included in EconomyBeat posts that have been clicked on the most. (10) Well-Paying Jobs That Most People Overlook (Business Pundit) (9) Shipwreck of the Sub-Prime Horses          (8) OddTodd cartoon: Help Wanted            (7) Healthcare reform explained on a napkin (6) Graphic: Potential tax revenue if [...]

A guest blogger on MomLogic discusses Joe Stack’s suicidal, murderous airplane crash into an IRS building in relation to her own problems with the IRS. After Joe Stack crashed his plane into an IRS building in Austin — killing himself and another person — his daughter, Samantha Bell, said he acted as a “hero” who [...]

Making news around the world: An Ohio man has bulldozed his home rather than let a bank foreclose on it. From WLWT Cincinatti: Terry Hoskins said he’s been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began [...]

When Republican Scott Brown won the special election for Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat last month, it through a giant monkeywrench into the Democrats’ plan to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill. We covered the responses of both the online Massachussetts Republican community Red Mass Group (elation) and the online Massachussetts Democratic community Blue Mass Group (despair).

Yesterday, Brown — and a handful of other Republicans — voted with Democrats to block a Republican filibuster on the Democratic jobs bill. From the Los Angeles Times:

So, with Brown contributing to half a political victory for the Democrats (the bill still has to pass the House), what do Massachussetts Republicans think of Brown now? Some comments on Red Mass Group

Yesterday, we told you about Ecocomics, a site devoted to examining economic principles represented in the storylines of comic books. Today here is a post from that site: Economics Themed Superheroes (and supervillains), submitted by readers using Marvel’s Create Your Own Superhero tool. Check out The Toxic Asset, Taxing Colossus, and Gold Standard. More superheroes/supervillains [...]

The search technology blog PeteSearch has a fascinating post on the geographical connections of Facebook friends. The Pete in PeteSearch gathered data on 210 million public profiles on the ‘book and created an interactive map with lines drawn between areas that share a lot of friends. As Pete explains it, “For example, a lot of people in LA have friends in San Francisco, so there’s a line between them.”

The map has three tabs at the top, one each for connections between countries, U.S. states, and U.S. cities.

Some random results:

• California users have strong connections to the East Coast states of New York and Massachussetts, and to Washington D.C. But the state also has a line drawn to Texas and the state of Washington.
• Chicago users connect mostly to those in Los Angeles, New York, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Atlanta.
• U.S. users in the aggregate connect mostly to other English speaking countries, but also to the Philippines and Indonesia.

After months of delving into unemployment, real estate, health care, and financial markets, EconomyBeat finally gets to the heart of the matter with this post, asking the question:

Does Superman really need the rest of the Justice League?

The answer can be found in Ecocomics, where “economics and comic books collide.” The site is devoted to examining economic principles represented in comic books storylines.

On the question of Superman and the Justice League, we find the answer in a post called The Justice League and Comparative Advantage.

When you think about it, Superman doesn’t need the rest of the Justice League.

In conventional wisdom, every member of the Justice League has a particular strength. Green Lantern can handle weird and alien threats. Aquaman can talk to fish. The Flash can handle armies of lightly armed minions in a heartbeat. Wonder Woman usually takes point on mystical threats. And Batman is the World’s Greatest Detective.

If we consider each of those types of crime-fighting an output, we see that each member of the Justice League is a uniquely skilled producer of that output. Sure, Batman can beat up henchmen almost as well as the Flash can. But Flash can do it better. If Batman specializes in detective work, and Flash specializes in henchman-stomping, the two of them produce more Justice on net than if one tried to do both.

But what if we bring Superman into the equation?

Maybe we should try this here… – Zero rupee note fights corruption in India Colorado Springs – City of the future? – Severe budget problems in low-tax Colorado Springs sets off debate on the Web What have you had to give up? – sacrifices made during the Great Recession Food stamp use – a chart [...]

Another dark but clever cartoon starring our friend Smigly.